News

Bridging the Brain Divide

10/23/2012

Brain Storm, the latest production from Everett, focuses on the beauty and complexity of the human brain.

For those
attending a recent RISD/Brown Brain Storm panel, the giant-sized cerebellum resting
off to the side of the stage was symbolic of the meeting of the minds about to
unfold. The creative directors of Everett, a Providence-based dance and performing
arts company with multiple RISD connections, hosted the discussion as part of a
five-day residency at Brown University’s Granoff Center for the Arts.

Artists “should
be part of the conversation” scientists are having about advanced research, noted
Dorothy Jungels, co-founder and
executive director of the company that has created provocative performance
pieces wrestling with such issues such as autism, depression and post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). Brain Storm,
the latest production she co-directed with her son Aaron Jungels 87 FAV, focuses on the beauty and complexity of the
human brain.

“What
happens when [artists and scientists] get together at the same table?” Jungels asked
the audience clustered in pockets throughout the auditorium.

Sarah Pease 13 FD was among the panelists ready to respond. While working in RISD’s
office of Government Relations, the furniture designer caught wind of the STEAM
movement, the RISD-driven initiative to add “Art” to the national education
agenda calling for greater emphasis on STEM subjects (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math). Noticing that the student body was not fully aware of these
efforts, she founded the RISD STEAM Club.

“RISD students stereotypically don’t pursue science or
math…But it’s all connected,” she said at the panel discussion, adding that the
popularity Apple products is an excellent example of what happens when technology
gets a boost through the incorporation of art, design and aesthetics.

The STEAM concept is close to her heart,
Pease says. With the help of her father, she grew up tinkering with model boats
and potato launchers, gaining an early introduction to physics and mechanical engineering. And these experiences actually led her to
pursue a college art education and a future bright with innovation. “I wasn’t thinking about it in those terms,” she explained. “But it was a
hands-on introduction to science and design.”

Fellow panelist Michael Paradiso, a professor of neuroscience and director of
Brown’s Center for Vision Research, literally showed how visual perception and
brain wiring are inexplicably linked, noting that artists were among the first
to understand how colors and dimension influence perception. Using optical
illusion tricks, he explained to the delighted audience that human minds are
programmed to recognize certain images – like faces – even if they aren’t the
real deal. And in order to understand this concept, neither science nor art can
be overlooked, the neuroscientist noted, adding “there’s circuitry in your
brain that you can’t overcome.”

Panelist Lucy
Spelman, who teaches biology at RISD, spoke about her own experience
making interdisciplinary connections – during years spent studying an isolated population
of mountain gorillas in the African wild. The zoologist soon discovered that
the animals were contracting human diseases and getting sick, which meant that
in order to protect the gorillas, the local population would need to be treated
first. This is a difficult concept to relay using only hard data, she
explained. “Science is more than just facts. It’s creative, challenging – it’s
a personal endeavor.”

And ultimately, Spelman realized that
the gorillas – much like ideas born from the marriage of art and science – can’t
be held captive to manmade restrictions. And that is concept forward-thinking
minds of any discipline can relate to. –Abigail Crocker